Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Romania
Romania Green Building Council Cooperation Plan
Prepared by:
Jasper Boychuk (Project Specialist)
Catalin Gauloiu (Project Specialist)
Romania Green Building Council - Habitat for Humanity Romania
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... - 3 -
General Recommendations ......................................................................................... - 3 -
Items for Immediate Deployment ............................................................................... - 3 -
Green Homes Standard Review ...................................................................................... - 5 -
LEED Homes .............................................................................................................. - 7 -
Notes on Site Investigations.......................................................................................... - 15 -
Bragadiru................................................................................................................... - 15 -
Possible Improvements ......................................................................................... - 15 -
Medgidia ................................................................................................................... - 15 -
House Description ................................................................................................. - 15 -
Possible Improvements ......................................................................................... - 15 -
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Romania Green Building Council - Habitat for Humanity Romania
Introduction
Habitat for Humanity Romania approached the Romania Green Building Council in May
of 2010 about how to proceed with interest received from donors in building green homes
through their programs. RoGBC committed two project specialists; Jasper Boychuk from
Queen’s University in Canada with a broad background in both corporate residential
construction as well as natural materials homes focusing on straw bale and Catalin
Gauloiu a master’s student in building energetics from Bucharest. They engaged in two
site visits and conversations with Chris Fontanesi and Andrei Chirila. A plan involving a
number of action items emerged. These actions would provide a solid shift in a greener
direction and help with reaching the organization’s goal of achieving its mandate while
reducing environmental impact.
General Recommendations
Design Efficiency – A major component to green construction is detailed design and
project planning. Resources put into design and planning are returned to the
organization in the form of reduced waste and higher performing homes. This is a
fundamental green principle.
Exploration of alternative materials - While the conventional materials used by Habitat
meet their current mandate current exploration of modernized and optimized
traditional design by the RoGBC will be made available to Habitat as research
progresses. Employing these techniques will increase the number of homes Habitat is
able to build as well as teaching recipients and participants methods of construction
that allow the construction of safe decent homes out of local readily available
materials. The two building systems most ideally suited to habitats need are straw bale
and stabilized earth blocks.
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LEED Homes
Prerequisite
1.1. Preliminary Rating – Try and rate it based on what you intend to happen. Not
done
Credits
1.2. Integrated Project Team (1 point) – Create a combined team of all design
professionals as well as builder and create design that holistically incorporates all
elements. Not done
1.3. Professional Credentialed with Respect to LEED for Homes (1 point) – Not
done
1.4. Design Charette (1 point)- Preliminary design workshop. Not done
1.5. Building Orientation for Solar Design (1 point) – Not considered
Prerequisite
2.1. Durability Planning – Not done
2.2. Durability Management – Not done
Credits
2.3. Third-Party Management Verification (3 points) – Verification of by a LEED
Homes green rater, not currently available in Romania but another third party
would serve same purpose.
Credits
3.1. Innovation 1 (1 point) – Not considered
3.2. Innovation 2 (1 point) – Not considered
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4.2. Permanent Erosion Controls (0/1 points) – Terracing, retaining walls to reduce
run- off on slopes or planting a specified number of trees, shrubs or native
ground cover. Not Considered.
4.3. Management of Runoff from Roof (1/2 points) – A rainwater water collection
system will get you these points as will landscape solutions. For full points get a
landscape designer or engineer to design a system that makes sure all roof runoff
is dealt with on site.
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Romania Green Building Council - Habitat for Humanity Romania
4. Windows (?/3)
LEED gives very specific U factors in metric units for 4 different climate zones in the
US, match a zone to the specific Romanian micro climate to determine how many points
you get. We would require U values for windows installed to evaluate this.
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OR
1.5. Off –Site Fabrication (0/4 points) – Build walls and roof trusses offsite.
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Romania Green Building Council - Habitat for Humanity Romania
Bragadiru
The first visit was to a special project build just outside of Bucharest that was done as
part of a partnership between HFHR and the Vodafone foundation. It was an eight person
residence designed for the NGO Motivation which works to provide services to people
with mental and physical disabilities.
Possible Improvements
Efficient timber design – structural design was wasteful of materials, excessive bolts
and steel plates, lumber at much larger dimensions then required for loading. Floor
joists were used in poor orientation and were excessive in size.
Passive solar and ventilation design consideration. Orientation of home, placement of
windows, shading to optimize passive heating and cooling. Investment in design of
these elements will improve energy efficiency for lifetime of building.
Medgidia
The home visited lay on the outskirts of down. It was a more typical build for HFHR and
reflected a typical North American housing system.
House Description
This system is a highly engineered and efficient use of materials would score high on a
LEED rating system due to its insulation, small floor space, modest energy consumptions
and small lot size.
Possible Improvements
Wood stoves which are intended for installation are discouraged by LEED for the
inefficient combustion and air pollution, adobe floors with radiant solar heating could
be made to work.
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Romania Green Building Council - Habitat for Humanity Romania
LEED requires low VOC levels in OSB, polystyrene, laminate flooring and Teflon
paint review of products tech sheets and comparison to VOC limits guide line could
identify if there is a problem
Given the lack of sewer hookup composting toilets and grey water gardens would be
the most efficient and greenest ways to dispose of waste water
Thermal solar would be ideal for this location and situation
Improve insulation to attic, upon inspection several locations were there were gaps in
the insulation were observed.
Roof pitch was very high resulting in a great deal of material going into an unlivable
attic.
Not consideration to passive solar design or solar orientation.
Possible issues with inadequate ventilation for winter months, affordable heat
exchanger could mean ventilation without loss of heat.
Insufficient exhaust for kitchen
No carbon monoxide detector
Insufficient shading around house for livable exterior areas in summer.
Contact Details
Jasper Boychuk – jasper.boychuk@RoGBC.org
www.rogbc.org
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